CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Patrick Blair (rugby union)

Scottish rugby union player (1891-1915)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 5, 2025
Entity authorityQ7146122 ↗
Source-derived summary

Patrick Charles Bentley Blair (18 July 1891 – 6 July 1915) was a Scottish rugby union player.

Biography

Blair was born in Wanlockhead, Dumfriesshire, the son of Rev. Charles Patrick Blair and Jeanie Bogle Smith Blair. He was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh, where he played rugby and field hockey, and King's College, Cambridge. where he played for the King's College team and Cambridge University RFC.

Blair was capped five times for Scotland in 1912–13, against South Africa, Wales, Ireland, England and France.

After earning a first-class degree at Cambridge, Blair joined the Egyptian Civil Service's Finance Department. After World War I began, he returned to Cambridge for military training. He was commissioned into the Rifle Brigade in March 1915. Four months later, he was killed by a shell in Boezinge, Flanders. He is buried in the Talana Farm Cemetery.

Editorial summary

“Patrick Blair (rugby union)” enters the record as scottish rugby union player (1891-1915). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Patrick, Blair and rugby can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1891, 1915, 1912—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1891-07-18. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Patrick, Blair and rugby.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Patrick Blair (rugby union)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Patrick, Blair and rugby provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7146122. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1915 and 1912.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Patrick Blair (rugby union)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Patrick Blair (rugby union) primary sources, Patrick Blair (rugby union) archive and Patrick research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Patrick Blair (rugby union)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Patrick Blair (rugby union)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.